


the best of us (happiness in misery)

by LittleMissLiesmith



Category: Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: Alternate Universe--High School, Angst, Hopeful Ending, How To Fix A Story For A (Semi) Happy Ending, I know Pluto doesn't work that way okay, M/M, Recursive Fanfiction, Stars, Unofficial Sequel, mute character, sort of a sequel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-11
Updated: 2014-08-11
Packaged: 2018-02-12 16:29:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,541
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2116836
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LittleMissLiesmith/pseuds/LittleMissLiesmith
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Carlos can't see the stars anymore; but maybe, just maybe, that will be okay.</p>
<p>(Alternate ending to BBCotaku's miss missing you, because that fic ruined me)</p>
            </blockquote>





	the best of us (happiness in misery)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [BBCotaku](https://archiveofourown.org/users/BBCotaku/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Miss Missing You](https://archiveofourown.org/works/1764171) by [BBCotaku](https://archiveofourown.org/users/BBCotaku/pseuds/BBCotaku). 



> Alright, as stated in the summary, this is an unofficial alternate ending to BBCotaku's miss missing you, because that fic ruined me completely. It picks up in place of Chapter 19 onward of the fic.
> 
> Hope you enjoy, and that it is at least halfway as decent as the original. Title is from Fall Out Boy's "I Don't Care" because the original was a Fall Out Boy song and while this one wasn't inspired by that song the line seemed appropriate.

The night sky was empty--no clouds, no stars, an invisible moon. How incredibly apropos.

Carlos wasn't entirely sure when he had ended up on the roof or how it had happened, but there he was, staring up at a quiet sky and holding his phone like a lifeline, waiting. Waiting for hours and hoping beyond belief that things would somehow be okay, or at least bearable.

He didn't cry. He wouldn't. There was still a chance. A small chance, an impossible chance, but then, Cecil himself was impossible in a lot of ways.

_Please let him be impossible. Just one more time._

The phone buzzed. Carlos nearly fell off the roof, righted himself on a slate, and glanced down at the unfamiliar number.

**He's okay.**

**Well.**

**Not okay.**

**But alive?**

**(It's Lauren, btw)**

**(Kev forgot his phone)**

Carlos stared down at the phone for a moment, then swallowed hard and crawled back inside.

He sat below the stars on the ceiling, not bothering to get into bed, and stared at the opposite wall until he managed to drop his chin to his chest and sleep.

-O-

The hospital was huge and impersonal and not in the least the sort of place Carlos would like to be for very long, but exceptions could be made. When he entered the waiting room Kevin was waiting for him, arms crossed and clothes rumpled like he had slept in them. He probably had, Carlos realized belatedly. 

"Family permission only," he said gruffly when Carlos approached him. "I'm family."

"...Can I see him?" Carlos asked quietly.

Kevin hesitated, then sighed and led Carlos down into the halls, to a small room.

Cecil was entirely too tiny, lying on the bed, eyes closed and face relaxed. If it weren't for the thick white bandages wrapped around his neck and the various machines he was hooked up to, he might have been asleep. Dreaming of Night Vale, maybe. Of Kevin and Carlos and the Smiling--

_No, no, nope, shut down that thought right now. Not good thoughts._

Carlos carefully walked over and knelt beside the bed, gently brushing fingers over Cecil's hands. "He's...he's gonna be okay?"

"In one way," Kevin said quietly. "In another..." He stood next to Carlos and put a hand on the edge of the bed, as if to steady himself. Maybe he was. "They don't think. That is. He might...he probably won't..." 

Carlos had never seen Kevin at a loss for words and closed his eyes. Maybe he didn't want to hear.

"They say that sometimes, in cases like these, the ability to speak comes back after a few years," Kevin finally whispered.

-O-

It was difficult, of course. How could it not be?

There wasn't any family to take Cecil in and Kevin wasn't yet able to become a legal guardian (Carlos was unsure whether that was a good thing or a bad thing), so within three weeks of Cecil's release from the hospital and his mother's formal arrest (awaiting trial and Carlos hoped she'd be locked up and never let out), Carlos got a text from Kevin asking him if the brothers could stop by to say goodbye.

Carlos felt his throat tighten.

**Okay.**

Cecil was still small, still unsteady on his feet, and he wore a thick multicolored scarf that would be endearingly cute in any other scenario. As it was, it made Carlos want to start sobbing.

"So," Kevin said, shifting the box he was holding from hand to hand. "I'm leaving tonight. And the woman from the social services will be by in a bit to pick up Cecil." He looked down at his brother. "If you two want a moment alone..."

Cecil nodded and stepped inside, close to Carlos. The older boy wrapped his arms around him, resting his chin in blond hair. "How long do we have?" he asked neither of them in particular.

"About a half hour." Kevin set down the box. "Um...this is...Cecil wants you to have the tapes. To listen to while he's gone?"

Cecil nodded, head still buried under Carlos's.

"Yeah, so..." Kevin shrugged. "I'll wait here."

Carlos and Cecil headed upstairs to the bedroom, where the smaller boy sat on the bed, pulled out his phone, and opened an app.

"That lets you talk?" Carlos asked curiously.

**Kinda.**

Carlos flinched a little. "It isn't as nice as your real voice," he said quietly. 

**Sorry.** Cecil looked at the bedcovers.

"No, no, don't be," Carlos said. "Anyway. Um. Before you guys leave, I was thinking for a while. About Nightvale and the doors."

**What about them? Can you escape?** Cecil looked at him hopefully.

"Kinda." Carlos took a breath. "So, we can’t shut the oak doors unless everyone is back where they belong. And every moment those doors are open, more of that light gets through into Night Vale. I couldn’t figure out why we couldn’t just keep the doors closed for good, and it was really frustrating to have a problem I couldn’t solve. And then I got sad, because I couldn’t solve it. But then I did solve it, and I felt so happy! So those are some – but not all – of the emotions that I had. Here is what I found." He sat on the bed next to Cecil and clicked on the recording device on the blonde's phone. "Night Vale is a place that is difficult to leave, and difficult to enter, and connecting a place as weird as that with a place as weird as this was causing a lot of…strain ion linear time and space. So…those native to Night Vale, Dana, John, the angry woman in the Intern shirt, all had to return home, and the masked army all had to come back here, which they did. Just moments ago, the last of them came back through the door. It is so exciting when you make a scientific discovery like that! I was very happy!"

Cecil looked so hopeful, but Carlos had to finish. Had to give a reason why they couldn't stay together.

"But then, as the last of the masked army members came through the door, it slammed shut and vanished. And I remembered that I am not from Night Vale." He took a deep breath and closed his eyes, ignoring the tears that threatened to spill out. "I remembered that, as far as the laws of the universe are concerned, it is not where I belong. Cecil, I don’t even remember how I got to Night Vale in the first place. I mean, where is Night Vale, even? But I promise I will find a way back. It’ll just take a couple of days, a week max. I’ll be fine. I’m a scientist. Cecil? A scientist is usually fine. Maybe a few weeks, I don’t know."

He looked at Cecil, who looked like a kicked puppy. "The upside is Dana was right. I have had 97% battery all day, and decent reception! So we’ll at least get to talk--or at least text--every night. Best of luck at home. I love you."

He turned off the record and looked at Cecil. "Does that work? At least until we find a way to get me back to Night Vale forever."

Cecil tilted his head. **As endings go, it'll do. Until the Voice of Night Vale can have his scientist back.**

Carlos swallowed hard and wrapped an arm around Cecil. "I'll miss you," he whispered. "But I can wait. It won't be forever. It isn't long at all." He looked up at the glow-in-the-dark stars. "We have a little time. I picked up some paint, and the stars outside don't shine like they used to. Help me out?"

-O-

The void outside remained dark; Carlos wasn't sure if it was light poisoning or false memories of a brighter sky or just something wrong with him and only him.

But in his bedroom, he laid back and stared at the constellations and planets and frightening-yet-not angels on the ceiling. He found the names and places and phrases that Cecil had spelled out without telling him, and then he found Pluto. Hidden in a corner, missing for now--like Carlos the Scientist, like Cecil Palmer across the country with a foster family--but ready to return when someone said the word, because small didn't mean unimportant, because _gone for now_ didn't mean _gone forever._ Because Cecil texted him every night, because even Kevin texted sometimes to make sure Cecil wasn't downplaying anything bad that could be happening whatsoever, because eight months, three weeks, and two days after Cecil Palmer left Night Vale Kevin's text read **He speaks! Well, kinda. It's raspy and he can't say more than a word or two...but it's a start.**

Because Carlos was leaving in the fall, because he was going to university, because gone forever wasn't long at all, because someday, maybe, years from now, Cecil Palmer and Carlos the Scientist would be reunited, in fiction or reality, because someday things might be okay again and it would only take a little waiting.

(The day the NASA scientists announced their revised consideration of Pluto as a planet, Carlos smiled, and then he texted Cecil.)

**Author's Note:**

> I know Pluto isn't a planet still, m'kay. I just wanted something happy at the end. I also know throat trauma tends to take longer than eight months to heal; again, wanted something happy.
> 
> UPDATE: Wow. It's been like twelve hours and the response I got is so very nice. Ideas for a follow up are spinning in my head...hm...how does a follow up sound? Hopefully a happier one.
> 
> UPDATE 2: HOLY SNICKERDOODLES DID I JUST GET 100 HITS IN 18 HOURS I LOVE THE WORLD. But if I have so many hits, why only the comments from the original author (squeeing fangirl moment) and two others?

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Alone Together](https://archiveofourown.org/works/2185575) by [BBCotaku](https://archiveofourown.org/users/BBCotaku/pseuds/BBCotaku)




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